Bridgeport Invests in Its Young Talent
A Fifth Year of Career-Connected Learning
Real credentials. Real employer engagement. Real careers ahead.
The Fairchild Wheeler cohort with their certificates, June 1, 2026
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. Now in its fifth year in Bridgeport, Youthful Impact has built a career-connected learning program that helps local youth earn industry-recognized credentials in fast-growing tech fields while interacting with real-world professionals. The current year is delivered in partnership with the Bridgeport Board of Education and funded by the Connecticut State Department of Education through its Extended School Hours grant, building on prior work funded through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) resources.
Students received stipends for their participation, a core element of Youthful Impact’s approach to building employability skills.
All Youthful Impact students build durable professional skills alongside foundational AI fluency, applying AI-assisted tools across their coursework and projects. As AI reshapes every field, the ability to work with it is now core to every one of the program’s career pathways.
Once complete, participants, whether in school or out of school, leave with two open doors and no dead ends: they can take their credential and real work experience straight into employment through a hiring consortium of more than 150 employers, including Best Buy, Deloitte, Ford, Verizon, Walmart, and Google, or convert them into 9 to 19 college credits through Youthful Impact’s academic pathways, including the CUNY School of Professional Studies online degrees in IT and business.
What Partners Are Saying
We believe everyone should be able to benefit from technology. Through our partnership with Youthful Impact, Bridgeport students can learn practical digital and AI skills alongside their schoolwork, giving them the tools and confidence they need to build meaningful careers.
Henry Deng
Public Sector Lead, Grow with Google
Our responsibility is to prepare every student for success beyond graduation. This partnership with Youthful Impact gives high school students the opportunity to earn valuable industry-recognized credentials, develop real-world skills, and see themselves in high-demand careers. I’m proud of what our students are accomplishing and grateful to everyone helping make these opportunities possible. We look forward to expanding programs like this to more schools across Bridgeport in the near future so even more students can benefit from these experiences.
Dr. Royce Avery
Interim Superintendent, Bridgeport Public Schools
Real Employer Engagement
Sompo
Juniors and seniors at Fairchild Wheeler also met with an investment analyst at Sompo, the global insurance and reinsurance firm. Students presented their learning and explored how their growing tech skills translate to careers in finance and risk.
SecReliant
Seven students in the cybersecurity track will spend the summer working on a hands-on project developed by SecReliant, a partner cybersecurity firm, applying their classroom learning to a real-world security problem.
Malcolm Pray Achievement Center
Students applied digital marketing and UX skills on a real client project for the historic classic car museum near Greenwich, helping it reach a new generation online.
Bringing These Outcomes to Washington
Youthful Impact was selected to participate in the Jobs for the Future (JFF) Legislative Summit in Washington, DC. Dr. Khaitsa Wasiyo will meet with members of Congress and their staff as part of a state team to advocate for federal policies that expand career-connected learning access for students in high-need districts like Bridgeport, so that no young person’s education ends in a dead end.
Want to be part of what’s next?
If you are an employer interested in hiring our students, a school interested in bringing this program in, a young person interested in joining a cohort, or a funder interested in supporting the work, we want to hear from you.
About Youthful Impact
Founded in 2021, Youthful Impact is a nonprofit that equips youth and young adults ages 14 to 24 for meaningful careers. The organization combines industry-recognized credentials, project-based entrepreneurship, trauma-informed coaching, and paid work experiences to help young people move from learning to earning. In Bridgeport, Youthful Impact has delivered career-connected learning programs since 2021, supporting high school students with industry-recognized credentials and real-world professional engagements.
Program Manager Youthful Impact coach@youthfulimpact.org
